Various techniques for an optical fiber and applications thereof are known.
For example, the following patents all discuss aspects of detecting the shape of an optical fiber, or the application of such detection: U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,781,724, 7,720,322, 8,460,236, 8,672,837, 8,567,265, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0121508, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,050,662, and 5,807,265, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.